Southpaw (7/10): Jake "The Great" Gyllenhaal delivers a knock out performance.

“Billy Hope knows how to take a punch, but he also drops bombs.”

Antoine Fuqua’s third film in the same amount of years may not be as exciting as last year’s The Equalizer, but it does benefit from having one of the best performance’s of the year. Jake Gyllenhaal’s commitment to the role is reason enough to recommend the movie and forgive some of its generic dramatic flaws. Training Day still remains Fuqua’s best film, but Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation gives Denzel Washington some competition here for best performance in a Fuqua film. When the film focuses on the boxing scenes it is at the top of its game, but when it stretches the drama towards the family dynamics it loses its appeal by feeling too conventional and melodramatic. Fuqua was aiming at directing an authentic film and stylistically it succeeds, but the beats are way too familiar and it’s full of cliches. What I loved about the realism in the boxing scenes is that Fuqua created a sense of illusion for the audience of being a ringside spectator, as the sound of the fans cheering drowned down the voice of the TV commentators giving us a sense of witnessing the event from up close. Despite his efforts to make the film look authentic, boxing fans know that the sport isn’t as exciting as they made it out to be here. Gyllenhaal got all the right moves and mannerisms for his character, but we know there aren’t as many punches thrown in real life and that most of the rounds are spent with the referee trying to break up the fighters from hugging each other so much. Gyllenhaal saves this film from the familiar melodrama and cliches found in the genre, which just goes on to prove how difficult it is to do what Stallone did with the Rocky franchise. That was one of the rare cases where both the drama and the sport combined perfectly to deliver an emotional punch to audiences around the globe. I think Fuqua was aiming a bit too high here trying to direct a modern day version of Raging Bull, but there are just some films that can’t be imitated no matter what great of a cast you have.  

This was writer Kurt Sutter’s first film screenplay, despite having written for successful TV shows such as The Shield and Sons of Anarchy prior to this. He begins the story by introducing us to boxer, Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), as he is in the locker room getting prepared for his fight. His wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), who has been with him since the two were young teenagers, is next to him as the trainers are giving him the last instructions and putting on his gloves. When his name is called by the announcers we find out that he is the undefeated champion in his division and has accumulated more than 40 wins. The arena is packed and everyone is chanting his name, but the fight doesn’t begin as well as he had hoped. After receiving several punches throughout the first rounds, Hope finally reacts and knocks his opponent out in the tenth round. The media goes crazy over him during the press conference after the fight where he is once again accompanied by Maureen and his promoter, Jordan Mains (50 Cent). The conference is interrupted by Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), a young upcoming contender who wants his shot at the title, but he is dismissed by Billy. When he finally returns to his beautiful home, Billy gives his young daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) a goodnight kiss and cuddles with her for a while. Everything seems perfect for him, but his life crumbles when his wife is killed in a tragic accident and for the first time in his life he doesn’t have someone there guiding him in his every move. His suicidal and erratic behavior makes him lose everything including the house and his daughter who is sent to child protection services. After touching bottom and in order to get his life back on track, Billy enlists the help of Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker) who takes him in to his gym and begins training him for his shot at redemption.

The plot is way too familiar and it hits every possible cliche along the way, but despite it all Jake Gyllenhaal elevates the material by making his character compelling. I didn’t believe some of the melodramatic moments, but the boxing and training scenes were enough for me to enjoy it. The film puts a lot of emphasis on the father and daughter relationship and it isn’t always believable how easy it goes from a love hate relationship from one scene to the next. There are also several subplots that distract from the main story and slow down the pacing of the film. For instance, the relationship Billy builds with one of the kids in Tick’s gym only serves as a way for us to sympathize with the main protagonist and believe in his transformation, but it doesn’t go anywhere else with it. The film introduces several scenes like this as a convenient means to move along the story, but they don’t add up too much. You know exactly where the story is heading at the end, but you can’t help but feel engaged by Gyllenhaal’s performance, and in the end he is the reason why the film succeeds along with other solid supporting work from McAdams and Whitaker.  

Platoon (9/10): Oliver Stone's personal experience in Vietnam

“I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. And the enemy was in us.”

If all war films were as good and sincere as Platoon it would probably be one of my favorite genres, but there are very few exceptions where the material is treated right as most directors tend to either be incredibly biased debating either in favor or against the war. It’s strange I make this claim since Platoon is obviously an anti-war film, but it treats the material with an honesty you don’t find in other films of the genre. It is much easier to make a statement like this in a war that everyone considers was a terrible mistake to get into. What Platoon has going for it however, is that it was written and directed by a man who actually served in the Vietnam War and decided to share his experience of what really was going on. Oliver Stone handles the material with incredible honesty not shying away from the horrors and senseless deaths in war and he delivers a film that never feels sermonizing (with a few exceptions). Even the villains (not the Vietnam soldiers, but the dubious Sgt. Barnes and his band of brothers) are portrayed with some sort of empathy. Platoon isn’t actually a film that focuses on war between Vietnamese and American soldiers, but rather the civil war that was going on inside the mind of these soldiers that Stone fought alongside with. He wasn’t afraid at pointing out who the real enemy truly was and for that reason the Vietnamese soldiers are barely portrayed in this film. It seems that with Platoon, Stone was able to cope with the effects that the war had on him and the result is a passionate and sincere film. 

In the very opening scene we are introduced to Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as he has just been deployed to Vietnam and is arriving at the war zone. He narrates the film through voiceover as he is writing letters to his grandma informing her about the war. Unlike most of the soldiers, he wasn’t forced to go to the war, but volunteered after giving up on college. During the first few weeks he is struggling to keep up with the pace of war and no one seems to care too much for him since he’s the new kid who hasn’t yet been exposed to all the carnage they’ve experienced. Chris is currently serving two noncommissioned officers who couldn’t be more different from each other. On the one hand there is scar faced Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) who seems to have been in the war forever and on the other there is Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) who is much more lighthearted and easy going. Both are experts at war who know they are fighting with unexperienced soldiers. When a village raid gets out of hand both Sergeants take opposite sides and the platoon is divided between those who support Elias and those who take Barnes’s side. Evidently the war has taken a toll on all these men and some begin to question their very participation in it when they realize the enemy is inside each of them. There are also supporting performances from Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, and John C. McGinley who are all in the platoon together.

There is no denying the emotional buildup during the scene of the village raid and Johnny Depp’s face says it all during one of the killings that takes place there. It is one of the most intense scenes I’ve seen in a war film. The performances in this movie are what stood out for me. Charlie Sheen is great in the lead role, but it is the confrontation between Berenger and Dafoe that truly stands out. Both deserved their Oscar nominations despite not winning, but Platoon still took the top honors for Best Picture in 1987. My only complaint with the film perhaps was that it didn’t really need the voiceover narration from Charlie Sheen. Stone could’ve had enough faith in the audience and let them see what he wanted to say with the images alone and not spoon feed them with the narration. The excuse for its inclusion is that he is writing his grandmother, but there are things as the movie goes on that are evidently thrown in there so the audience could understand what he was thinking. It’s just a minor complaint because his character was still the easiest to identify with. The score and the cinematography are both effective and they enhance the horrors portrayed in this film. Platoon still manages to have an impact almost thirty years later and that is why it is a classic.

Taken 3 (4/10): A parody of The Fugitive more than an actual sequel

“If you go down this road, the LAPD, the FBI, the CIA... they're all gonna come for you. They'll find you. And they'll stop you.”

Taken 3 is less of a sequel and more of a parody of memorable action films such as The Fugitive and even the first Taken. I was a huge fan of the original which I even included among my favorite films the year it came out because I was blown away by Liam Neeson’s performance and the gripping action sequences. I also admit defending the sequel, although it is a decision I regret now that I have rewatched the film, because I just loved the character that Neeson plays. I thought the idea of a franchise for Bryan Mills would be an awesome one, but you just can’t continue making it revolve around his family. I mean his daughter should be in desperate need of a psychiatrist after everything that she has gone through. I don’t know how Maggie Grace pulls it off, but she looks even younger now than she did 10 years ago when she starred in the first season of Lost. This time the plot revolves around Bryan’s ex-wife getting murdered and him getting framed for her death. While being chased by the police, Bryan has to discover who was behind Lenny’s murder. We’ve seen this plot played out many times before, but no one has done it better than The Fugitive. You even have Forest Whitaker here playing the smart detective trying to solve the case while he is chasing Bryan (similar to what Tommy Lee Jones did in The Fugitive). The villains in this film are probably the weakest element and are often laughable which is why I felt this was sort of a parody instead of an action movie. The action scenes are difficult to watch because the camera is moving all the time and there are over 50 shots every minute or so. There are also many unbelievable scenes which Bryan walks out of without a scratch, and we don’t even see how he survives some of them. But somehow the climax outdoes them all in ridiculousness. Taken 3 is a huge letdown and hopefully the final film of the franchise as promised in the posters. 

Liam Neeson is an actor that I will always enjoy watching on screen, especially when making action scenes and threatening people over the phone. My only recommendation is that they don’t show him running because it isn’t one of his strengths. Unfortunately the film has so many shots and cuts that you can’t enjoy Neeson fighting off the villains. Forest Whitaker is a great actor, but you can tell that sometimes he is just cashing in a performance. He is basically playing the same character he did in The Last Stand although this time he pays with a rubber band around his wrist while trying to solve the case. At this point I guess I would rather watch a film where Liam Neeson is threatening villains over the phone than actually seeing director Megaton ruining the action by cutting one shot after another every second. Fake Janssen doesn’t get much screen time and I guess she bailed the franchise at the right moment. The villains have no personality whatsoever in this film (which I would argue is the case in the entire franchise, but at least they were threatening the first time around). The screenplay is full of plot holes and in the end you have to go through the tedious explanation of what we already know has happened just in case the audience was stupid and didn’t understand what they saw. But perhaps they did it for those of us who may have fallen asleep during the action scenes because this is by far the longest film in the franchise and you feel it.

My Review: Out of the Furnace (5/10)

"Am I supposed to be scared of him because he sucks on a lollipop?"

I had high expectations for Out of the Furnace considering it had a very strong cast and I enjoyed Scott Cooper's previous film, Crazy Heart, but I was really disappointed with this movie which never managed to engage me and had some serious pacing issues. The depressive tone of the film and the dark atmosphere was a bit over the top and the story also has many manipulative moments. The performances were solid and actually make this film worth the watch despite its many flaws. The tone of the film reminded me a lot of Prisoners, but that movie worked much better and was way more engaging. This isn't your typical revenge movie, I wouldn't consider this an action film or a thriller; it's more of a drama about this economically depressed town where two brothers are struggling to find a way out and move on in life, a life which hasn't been very kind to them and has dealt them some terrible cards. Many may argue that the performances were enough to save this film, but for me the weak script brings it down by making several scenes feel forced and out of place.

Russell (Christian Bale) and Rodney (Casey Affleck) are two brothers that have grown up in economically depressed Rust Belt, Pennsylvania. Russell has followed his father's footsteps working at the local steel mill and seems content with his life as he cares for his ill father and finds comfort in his relationship with Lena (Zoe Saldana). He also looks out for his brother who gets into small gambling debts with John Petty  (Willem Defoe) and ends up paying off those debts for him. Russell's life takes an unexpected twist one night when he suffers a car accident killing a child in the other vehicle. He is sent to prison for five years while his brother who served in the Iraq war comes to visit him. They both go through traumatic experiences, but when Russell is released from jail he is determined to turn their lives around despite that he no longer has the comfort he had in Lena who has left him for the local sheriff, Barnes (Forest Whittaker), and his father past away during his time in prison. To make matters worse, Rodney has entered the underworld of street fighting and got involved with a violent crime ring leader named Harlan (Woody Harrelson). When Rodney goes missing and the police can't seem to do anything about it, Russell decides to take things into his own hands and avenge his brother.

Christian Bale and Casey Affleck both give great performances. Bale's character, Russell, is portrayed as a very nice guy who seems to be a victim of the circumstances that surround him. I think he was portrayed in a far too light way, so the audience could identify with him and feel sorry for what he was going through. Harrelson also looked menacing as the villain, but at times his character was also a bit too cartoonish and always tried to have some funny remark. These elements didn't play out too well for me considering the dark tone of the film. The cinematography was really good and it did capture that depressing mood very well. There is one specific scene where I can point out how manipulative and forceful the story was trying to be and it has to do with the moment in which we discover Rodney's fate while Russell reads a letter that he has left for him telling him how he is planning on changing his life and is convinced that this will be his last fight. That was just an example of how manipulative the screenplay was trying to be and I found several moments like that. Instead of drawing me in, it only took me out of the movie. The film was gritty, but I just didn't like the way in which they tried to trap the audience. It may have some important social commentary and interesting metaphors, but those forced moments took me out of it and made me feel it lacked substance.

My Review: The Butler (8/10)

"Everything you are and everything you have, is because of that butler."

Lee Daniels' The Butler is an ambitious film that has Oscar bait written all over of it. It may have an uneven and overlong narrative, but the impressive cast makes up for it. The film covers an extended period of time where political and racial history was being made in the United States, but it does so in a very quick and safe way. That is where some of the comparisons with Forrest Gump come in, but this film takes itself more seriously. I wasn't a fan of Lee's previous film, The Paperboy, but Precious was a solid movie. The Butler is not as good as Precious, but it's still a solid effort and an engaging film with some great performances. We get to see through the eyes of the butler how each of the historical events presented in the film affected his life and society as a whole. It can be manipulative and melodramatic at times, but the film does work and it's emotionally affecting. Many of the characters come in and out of the film so quickly that we barely have time to get to know them. The only three characters in this film that get some depth are the butler, his wife, and oldest son. That was enough to engage the audience and keep them hooked to the story despite the pacing issues. 

The screenplay was written by Danny Strong inspired by an article written by Wil Haygood entitled "A Butler Well Served by This Election." The film is very loosely based on a true story, but several liberties were taken for dramatic effect. It centers on the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) who grew up in the south as a domestic servant in the 20's. He later decides to continue his life on his own and becomes a hotel valet under the guidance of Maynard (Clarence Williams III) who teaches him everything he needs to know about becoming a servant. He does his work so well that eventually he's called to serve at the White House during the 50's. Beginning his service during President Dwight Eisenhower's (Robin Williams) term he observes the radical changes from the inside for decades serving seven more presidents in the process. His service eventually affects his family life including his relationship with his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) who has a drinking problem and with his oldest son Louis (David Oyelowo) who becomes involved in the Civil Rights movement. The Butler allows us to experience the changes in America during the 20th century through his eyes and the effect it had on his family.

Despite being manipulative and playing it pretty safe, what The Butler does best is focusing on the duality of its main character and the inner struggle he must face. That is the key element in this film and what works best because there are several flaws with the pacing considering its ambition to cover such an extensive period of time. Cecil learns at a very young age that he must remain invisible and thus learns how to control his emotions and keep to himself. That is why he becomes such an efficient servant, but on the inside he struggles with the injustice despite remaining passive. His son, is the opposite, and that is where the duality is expressed as he represents everything his father isn't. The Butler works best when it centers around this conflict between father and son, and the conflict between the two differing ideologies. It was interesting to see this dynamic in play and it worked much better than the extensive and broad biopic that it was trying to be. The impressive cast also lifts this film and makes it seem much better than it really is. David Oyelowo is probably the best here, although Whitaker is receiving a lot of credit for his restrained performance as well. It was good to see him sharing a short scene with Robin Williams (since I was a huge fan of their 80's film Good Morning Vietnam, it had a nostalgic effect on me). The Butler isn't a groundbreaking film and as a period film it doesn't impress much, but it gets credit for trying to explore the duality in The Butler and his relationships.

My Review: The Last Stand (6/10)

¨We are not going to let that guy come through our town without a fight.¨

Believe me, that line sounds a lot cooler when Arnie says it. The Last Stand is his first film in a lead role since Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines way back in 2003. Schwarzenegger is getting old, but he still has the charisma of a true action star. As his character in the Terminator promised he came back and he did so in this guilty pleasure action packed film directed by Jee-woon Kim (I Saw the Devil, The Good the Bad and the Weird) from South Korea. This film shouldn’t be confused with the third film of the X-Men (The Last Stand) franchise, although it does share some similarities in that this is another mindless fun action film in which we can laugh at the craziness of it all. This is a typical Schwarzenegger film that brings back some nostalgic memories of his movies using the same successful formula he used during the 80s and 90s. He is always at his best when he is given short dialogue and can answer back with some clever and funny one liners. That is exactly the case with his role here since he seems to be making fun of himself and his old age. He always has been a good sport parodying himself, his accent and his acting chops. That is what has made him such a likeable actor over the years, and that is the reason this movie is entertaining despite the ridiculous plot and story (written by Andrew Knauer). I think Schwarzenegger fans will be very pleased with this movie and have a fun time because it is a very passable and enjoyable film.

Sheriff Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a former LAPD officer, has moved back to his small local community of Sommerton Junction. He counts only with three inexperienced deputies: Mike (Luis Guzman), Jerry (Zach Gilford), and Sarah (Jaimie Alexander), but they seem to be more than enough since nothing ever really seems to happen in this quiet town. Meanwhile a dangerous drug kingpin named Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) has escaped from an FBI prisoner convoy and is headed south in order to try to reach the border before the authorities catch up to him. Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) is in charge of the operation, but his men have failed to catch the elusive fugitive. Now the only thing that stands between Gabriel´s escape is Sommerton, and the Sheriff will be waiting for him, but in order to do so he must prepare his unqualified men with the help of a local weapon fanatic named Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville). Together this unlikely team will have to do what the FBI couldn’t: stop Gabriel before he reaches the border.

    

This gritty and violent film works really well because it decides to incorporate a lot of comedy. It kind of makes fun of itself in its way, and that self parody is what saves this clichéd action genre film. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a lot of very funny lines and he makes fun of his old age, but he hasn’t lost his physical strength. The rest of the cast is pretty interesting, although Johnny Knoxville goes a bit over the top with his performance. The secondary characters of Sommerton are the real surprise of this film as they share the funniest scenes while interacting with each other. Luis Guzman, Zach Gilford, and Jaimie Alexander all have some funny scenes, but the true star of the film is Arnie with all the gunfights and explosions going on. This mindless film is enjoyable thanks to the funny moments throughout and some entertaining action scenes. There isn’t anything that really stands out about this film; it is just your average action film, but it marks Arnie´s comeback and it´s worth it just for that. I also felt a lot of nostalgia since this film reminded me so much of the movies I watched growing up, but that is about it. This isn’t one film you have to watch, but if you are a Schwarzenegger fan then you will enjoy this movie.

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My Review: Repo Men (5/10)

¨At the end, a job is not just a job, it's who you are, and if you wanna change who you are, you have to change what you do.¨

Repo Men has an interesting cast and an original premise, but the movie ends up being far from original. It begins with a lot of promise and some interesting characters, but halfway through the movie it begins to lose itself. The twist at the end didn't work for me and I suspected something like that coming. I didn't like how Jude Law's character changed all of a sudden after the heart transplant. It just didn't make sense how someone like him who had been doing his job for years without regrets would all of a sudden stop in the moment he most needed to continue. Everything seems to develop for the screenplay instead of developing the story. This is Miguel Sapochnick's first feature film and he really wasn't able to use the talented cast or the material to its fullest potential. The movie was based on Eric Garcia's novel The Repossession Mambo, and he also worked on the screenplay with Garrett Lerner who wrote several episodes of House MD and Boston Public. I expected more from this movie considering I enjoyed Garcia's book Matchstick Men, which was also turned into a movie directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Nicolas Cage. In Repo Men however, the screenplay is probably the weakest part of the film, which had to use several gory scenes in order to shock us because the characters weren't developed at all. I really didn't expect this movie to be so gory and violent, but it does have some entertaining action scenes.

The story takes place sometime in the future although the date is never given. Remy (Jude Law) works for a company called The Union that specializes in selling artificial organs. These organs can be bought through credit and just as when you buy a car or a house and can't make the payment those things are taken away from you, so are your organs. This is where Remy comes in, once payments can't be made after a three month grace period he removes these transplants instantly. He is one of the best in the business at retrieving these artificial organs along with his friend from the fourth grade with whom he even went to War with: Jake (Forest Whitaker). They are called the Repo Men because they repossess what belongs to the Union when the high costs can't be paid. Their boss is Frank (Liev Schreiber),a heartless man who only cares about getting what belongs to him back and selling more organs. Jack and Remy also do what they have to without having second thoughts about it because a job is a job. Carol (Carice van Houten) doesn't like what her husband Remy does for a living and constantly asks him to stop being a repo man and work in sales so he can spend more time at home with her and their son Peter (Chandler Canterbury). Remy suffers an accident while doing his job and has to go through a heart transplant himself. Once he recovers he literally has a change of heart since he doesn't feel right about being a repo man because he begins to identify with them now. Since he can't do his job, he can't pay for his heart either and has to hide from the repo men who are after him. He hides along with another organ refugee named Beth (Alicia Braga) and together they try to fight off these men and clean their credit history.

The movie looked promising at first with some good action scenes, but halfway through the movie I began to lose interest. It was hard for me to believe that Remy would have a change of heart just like that and the transformation he went through was not believable considering how cold hearted he was. The cast was pretty strong and they all gave good performances; it was just the story that didn't work. There was an interesting scene near the end that will remind everyone who saw Oldboy of the famous hallway hammer fighting scene. The difference is that this shot was filmed with various different camera angles and edited, while the one in Oldboy was made all in one shot without editing. This scene didn't work as well because all the editing took away the realistic feeling that the Oldboy scene gave. Some other moments of this sci-fi film remind us of Minority Report, but the problem with Repo Men is that we are constantly reminded of these other movies which were far more superior than this one. At the end Repo Men falls short and only is mildly entertaining.

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My Review: Where The Wild Things Are (4/10)

¨It's going to be a place where only the things you want to happen, would happen. ¨

The only thing I wanted to happen while watching the highly appraised Where the Wild Things Are was for the movie to get over with. I found this film very boring and couldn`t identify with the characters. I understood the melancholic point the director was trying to get across, but I guess my childhood was nothing like that. I remember enjoying my childhood a lot and never feeling so philosophical and sad towards life like the main character felt. The first twenty minutes of the film you just feel so sorry for Max because he feels so ignored and misunderstood. I think this movie is a little too dark for kids to enjoy and a bit too imaginative for grownups to endure. Perhaps it is just me, but I found it very difficult to identify with Max. This film was directed by Spike Jonze, who is famous for directing several videos for musical bands, directing Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, and working as a writer for the Jackass series. This time he adapted Maurice Sendak`s classic children`s story. I haven`t read the story so I can`t say if it is faithful to the original material, but after watching this movie I am not even remotely interested in reading the story. The movie has a very sad and pessimistic feel to it, but at the same time it does feel artistic as well. The main problem I had with it is that I wasn`t being entertained and felt the movie was taking forever.

Where the Wild Things Are is a movie about a kid named Max who feels misunderstood and lonely. He doesn`t have many friends and spends most part of the day playing with his wolf suit and his dog. Max is played very well by the young Max Records (from The Brothers Bloom); he is very mature on screen and gives the best performance in this movie. His sister is a little older than him and she is going through the stage of dating boys and doesn`t pay too much attention to him. His mom (played by Catherine Keener from 40 Year Old Virgin fame) is a single mother who has to make time for work and the children. One night Max gets upset while his mother is downstairs with her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo from Zodiac) and he throws a tantrum because he doesn`t get what he wants and ends up bighting her. After this Max runs away from home and ends up imaginatively crossing an ocean and reaching an island full of strange creatures. Here he finds a group of them who are arguing with one because he is throwing a fit and destroying their homes because someone has left the group. Max decides to assist Carol, the creature who is destroying everything, because he identifies with him (Carol and Max are very similar in nature). The creatures at first want to eat Max, but he tells them he is a king and that he has special powers so the creatures decide to crown him king of the island as long as he takes away the sadness. He says he has a sadness shield that will keep sadness away from everyone so they all accept him. All the creatures have different emotions, one feels like no one ever listens to him, another is always upset and wants to eat people, and Carol who is the most similar to Max always has to get what he wants. In this new world, Max feels accepted and listened to, but he will soon find out that it isn`t easy to be king and will learn an important lesson in the process. The creatures are voiced by James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O`Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Michael Berry Jr., and Lauren Ambrose.

I think this movie is too dark for kids to enjoy. Max Records does a great job of expressing these wide ranges of emotions a ten year old kid goes through, but the material is a bit too complicated for children. At least I couldn`t identify with what Max was going through as I remember my childhood more enjoyable and less philosophical. I think that Up is a movie that expresses these issues in a better light and that kids and grownups will enjoy much more. This film is very artistic, but you really feel sad for the kid right from the opening scene and the movie just feels too nostalgic and doesn`t seem to focus enough in the good moments we all have had in our childhood. When the movie began I was hoping it would get to the moment we were introduced to the creatures because I felt it was dragging too much, but then when we get to the creatures I was just waiting for the movie to end because I was bored and felt it was taking forever. I wouldn`t recommend this movie, although most people I have talked to have enjoyed it so you might want to check it out because it could have a different effect on you than it did on me.